Aeonium Flowering and Windy Conditions

The brief thunderstorm we had the other morning was followed by some heavy winds, which are hell on arboreal aeoniums (aeoniums that are tree-like). Succulents tend to have very shallow roots, and while most plants have extensive root systems that anchor them in place, most succulent plants are quite easy to remove from the soil.

The replanted aeonium, now tied to old rebar and an iron sculpture.

The wind blew over the latest blooming stem on my oldest succulent, and I was nervous of it enough to immediately go out front to fix it, without putting on my gloves. ALWAYS PUT ON YOUR GLOVES! In my case, I was forced to improvise a stake for it, and while I had a good, steady item to tie the plant stem to, it was rough on my hands.

My first instinct, having no tall wooden stakes, was to use a second piece of rebar to stake this plant (I had used the first of the two leftovers to stake the large green euphorbia next to the aeonium). I shoved the rebar in as deep as I could, but it wasn't enough to keep the plant upright and steady.

Garden decor to the rescue! My brother went through a period of iron sculpture, and I am the proud owner of a couple of his pieces. One of our favorites, the Tree, is in the front yard. It's gotten magnificently rusted in the weather, and its structure allowed for me to rest the aeonium against a sort of crotch formed at the top of the sculpture.

This is where I should have worn my gloves. Rough, rusty iron. Bare hands. I'm lucky this was all I got:

Now, saving this plant may seem silly, because if you've read my other post on aeoniums, you will already know that if the plant is flowering, it is going to die afterward. Darn it, though, I've had this guy going in various offshoots for eight years, and I'm proud of the five foot tall plant! Besides, it has an offshoot I want to keep on the main plant as long as possible.

 You can see where the offshoot has grown lateral roots at its base. Hopefully, when the larger plant passes away, it will be easy to break off and simply plant on its own with roots already grown. If you look at the picture at the top, though, you'll see the stem is shaped like a horseshoe, so it's likely I will have to chop half of it off to end up with one straight stem.

Why is this titled in reference to flowering? Another one of my aeoniums is in the process! One of my ground-level plants that surrounds the feature agave is blooming! This patch of aeoniums started as a few small plants and a larger plant, which grew, and grew, and produced offshoots, etc...

I've just never had one of my newer guys bloom before! It would appear that aeoniums need perhaps at least four or five years of growth before they bloom and die. Since I only have one plant blooming, it is unlikely that the blossoms will be fertilized and produce viable seeds, same with the arboreal aeonium.

So, as far as propagation, your best bet is to hope for offshoots. This is standard for nearly all succulent plants. It's much easier to create new plants through offshoots and cuttings than by collecting and planting seeds. The good news is that in the time it takes for your aeonium to mature and flower (then die), it will likely produce many offshoots which can be separated into individual plants.

An offshoot of my first blooming aeonium. Just ONE leaf marred by snail nibbles. Grr.

A closer view of the offshoot. This type of aeonium is known as "cyclops" because of the "eye" pattern.

This little guy is an amazing survivor of the snails and has gotten sturdy enough to be transplanted to the foreground.

The Elegant Aeonium

  Aeoniums are easily recognized as succulents, their fleshy leaves growing in rosettes. Originally distributed by sailors as souvenirs from the Canary Islands, they're readily available at nurseries and home stores; my first aeonium was a Target purchase of aeonium cyclops, a purple aeonium with green at the center of the rosettes. Aeoniums propagate frequently by offshoots or pups, and produce seeds once in their lifetime, dying after blooming.

Baby Aeonium right after being put in the ground.

The same plant a few weeks later.

  

  Wait, aeoniums die after blooming? Yes, aeoniums are like agaves in that they live for years, then bloom once and expire. This isn't necessarily a problem, however. As long as the gardener knows this is going to happen, then it can be planned for and pruned correctly. Aeoniums reproduce just like agaves, though like most other succulents, aeoniums reproduce pups that are actually grown in between the leaves of mature rosettes, or along the stems of arboreal plants. Aeoniums also have shorter life cycles, which means you can enjoy aeonium blooms much more frequently than those of the century plant.

A few weeks after that the largest leaves have been completely blocked from the sun by new leaves.

 When growing aeoniums it is important to let the plant expand through new rosettes and offshoots. One rosette may bloom then die, but you'll already have a larger body of plant that will continue to thrive. A dead aeonium must be removed from the living plants around/attached to it. With arboreal (tree-like) aeoniums, the dead bloom is removed and the stem trimmed of the now elongated rosette. DO NOT remove the entire stem! It is very likely that your aeonium will grow new offshoots from the bare stem.

Miniscule rosettes are blooming from "eyes" where the stem formerly had a leaf in this aeonium cyclops.

The aeonium cyclops before blooming.

An aeonium cyclops in bloom.


Aeonium blooms are cone-shaped structures made of tiny yellow flowers. I must admit, I was rather dismayed to find my aeonium blooming, and the stages in between preparing to flower and the actual bloom leave the plant looking like a phallic symbol from a Cronenberg film! In fact, I have no photos of that stage, as I avoided looking at my plant for awhile. I'm not a prude, but it was... gross. Now that I'm prepared for the weirdness, I'm waiting for the remaining largest rosette to bloom.

An adult aeonium of the same species as the plant in the first two photos.

Close-up of the center of the adult aeonium.

A new rosette growing between leaves near the base of the parent plant.

Two pups growing at the base of the larger adult plant.

  I cut two pups off of this aeonium, though they wouldn't root for weeks! They're both still alive, and finally rooted after what might be a month. Both severed pups withered a bit, closed up, and turned yellow-green. As can be seen in the below photo, the leaves are going green again, indicating the plant has finally set out some roots and reached water. I don't plan on removed the two remaining pups; I'm curious to see how the plant will change as they expand and reproduce themselves.

One of four pups finally rooted and growing again.

  Aeoniums look more plant-like to me than some other succulents. They are also more susceptible to damage. Scratches on leaves can scab over, and snails adore these plants! This damage is apparent in these variegated baby aeoniums. Water sitting on the plant can burn it, and create patterns of dots as you can see in the below image.

  These particular plants were much less pink and yellow and very green when removed from their packaging. I kept them in the shade before planting them, and it's been fascinating watching their colors grow in! These are looking like they might be aeonium "Kiwi" plants, as they are remaining fairly low to the grow and are already reproducing. The tenacious plants are growing despite damage. Pink and green are my favorite colors, and like several other succulents, this aeonium bursts with the colors!

  I'm growing one more aeonium, though I have no idea what type it is. It forms a small shrub and the long, green rosette leaves are slightly hairy and sticky. It came without a proper label, and I still haven't found an adequate description of it in any of my books or on the internet. Its growth has been rather explosive, and I'm curious to see if it grows taller or just spreads out.

                                 

Some lovely pictures of aeonium cyclops:

Morning dew rests inside this rosette. Smaller plants do not tolerate dew as well as this larger plant can.

Close up of the little yellow flowers

A canopy of brilliant yellow.

Lovable Lithops

My instant lithops collection purchased from Ebay

  
  Lithops are a type of Mesembryanthemum (try saying that five times fast) found in Namibia and South Africa. Mesembryanthemums are a family of succulents with an interesting characteristic. They look like rocks.

  Lithops are characterized by a two-part plant body. With a yearly growth cycle they reproduce themselves, a new plant emerging from between the two plant halves (which aren't exactly halves, one is slightly larger). Sometimes a lithops will produce two new plant bodies, like the plant in the top right corner of the first photo. A lithops can expand like this over many years, creating a plant body of many lithops joined in a cluster.

  Lithops, apparently, are known as difficult to care for. This is far from true. I think lithops must be the easiest houseplant one can find.

A four-headed lithops I found on clearance at Home Depot.

  Lithops are rarely in need of water. In fact for at least half of the year they want nothing to do with it! After growing a new plant body a lithops will absorb the nutrients from the old plant body, eventually leaving a husk that can be pulled off with care. The four-headed lithops in the above photo still has the desiccated leaves attached. It is essential during this time that you DO NOT WATER! Lithops are from extremely arid areas, and only experience rainfall a few months out of the year. Overwatering can easily lead to the death of the plant!

After potting the plants. Old plant bodies are visible on a few.

  In the spring the old plant bodies are husks, and you can water your plant(s). Only water them about every two weeks, and STOP WATERING when summer hits. The plant is resting, and too much water can overwhelm it. Towards the middle/end of August start watering again, and water well, letting the soil dry completely in between waterings. In a month or two a lithops will produce a single yellow or white flower, which emerges from the center just like the new plant body eventually will. Stop watering when the flower begins to wither. After the flower dies a new plant emerges. At the end of winter, in late spring you can start watering again.

I usually don't name plants, but this is Audrey!

  I'm looking forward to my plants blooming this fall, but not all of them will. Lithops won't produce a bloom until they are at least a couple of years old. With that in mind I am pretty confident my "four-headed" lithops will bloom in September. It has to be at least a few years old, as a lithops only doubles (if that) during a single growth season. This also means that my two-headed lithops could be old enough to bloom as well. As far as I can determine, the only way to know a plant is older than a year is if it contains more than one plant body, and plants do not necessarily double every growth cycle.
  

Lithops a few months later. The old leaves have withered away.

  I've watered my lithops only a few times. I watered the four-headed plant when I planted it because one of the plant bodies was slightly wrinkled, indicating a need for water, as well as the fact that the soil it was in was sand-dry. I'm guessing that's why they were on clearance. Home Depot probably only sells lithops and other mesembryanthemums seasonally and has a "no watering" rule.

  When it comes to placing your pot of lithops, make sure it's in a location where it can get four to five hours of direct sun each day. More than that can lead to sunburn, as you can see the lithops on the 

left in the above picture. Without enough sunlight a lithops will grow long and thin, trying to reach whatever light they can. Mine are all in an indoor windowbox facing the north. I don't have good east and west windows, so it was a choice between north and south, and I'm definitely more Yankee than Union.

  Most of my lithops were an eBay lot purchase with which I'm very pleased. Lithops seeds are inexpensive, and apparently grow well. Having no patience for seedlings, I went straight for the adult plants, which one should be able to find for less than $5.00 for an individual plant. If you hurry now (date of post) to Home Depot you might find some on clearance for a couple of dollars. Good luck! 

Mystery Plant from Cutting

  An amazing and rewarding aspect of growing succulents is their ability to "reverse" growth to create entire new plants from cuttings of leaves and stems. Not every piece of a succulent plant will turn into a new plant. Some will simply rot, some will dry out. Sometimes, however, the little cutting gets just enough warmth and water to turn itself into an entirely new plant.

The tiny plant is hiding under the white senecio.

  Every time I put new plants in the ground I take iPhone photos so I can monitor the plants' growth. When looking through some photos, I noticed that there was a little succulent hiding under one of the Senecio herrianus, or white senecios. I didn't notice the plant when I put the senecio in the ground, but when I saw it in the photo I went out and plucked it.

The plant after removing it from its original location.

It's adorable! It also needs to get a break from all of that sun. The plant is "stressed" from the sun, and has turned itself red as a sort of sunblock. Not sure what sort of succulent it was, I brought it inside to a window-box nursery where I keep my small cuttings until they root enough to plant. If the plant continued to thrive, I would be able to identify it eventually. It's like a lottery.

About 2-3 weeks later. 

  Obviously less stressed, the plant has turned green, and the original leaf is almost completely desiccated, as the baby plant has "sucked out" all of the nutrients. The red shiny threads are the roots, and they are NOT very sturdy ones! Some succulents seem to grow red/pink roots, and some grow white roots. The white roots seem to be "sturdier" than the red ones.

One month after bringing inside to "nursery."

   The plant is now completely green and much larger. I've left the desiccated leaf attached to use as a sort of grip, as the plant is still very small and the roots quite delicate. I'm thinking it's a type of graptoleum. One of the biggest problems with succulents is identification. Very few nurseries seem to label their plants correctly, and most home store nursery plants have useless labels that don't even provide a colloquial name.

One month later.

  I have no idea what this is. Well, I know it isn't an aeonium, and it isn't a euphorbia, and it's definitely not an aloe or agave... that only leaves thousands of possibilities! If you want to know exactly what you're growing, purchase your plants from a succulent/cactus nursery. They are much more likely to be able to give you the correct name of whatever specimen you purchase. There are very few books on succulents that identify them in a way helpful to the home gardener.